George, the unit some of the folks here are talking about is also marketed by Sears under the Craftsman brand. I suggest you go the your friendly Sears store and check it out.
The store in my area will give you a demo, I found the unit to be pretty good.
Now here is the big question you must ask yourself... What do you expect the machine to do and at what quality?
This unit will give you pretty good results for the cost but it is by no means a heavy duty professional machine. It is for the hobbiest and will produce that quality of work at a hobbiest price.

Okay, so, in my continuing effort to educate myself on this... about how long does it take to carve a piece about a foot square? Say a Celtic knot with some detail around it? Roughly half an hour? An hour? Depends on the wood and the speed and the depth?

Thanks much, Jay. I just went back and found this.

George,
It takes about an hour to do a normal quality 4" Celtic knot inlay. However, a high quality set of (say, three) detailed leaves or shells will take two hours or more. It's not a big deal though, since I do other things while its carving. After my first project, I stopped just standing there watching it. lol. Obviously, if this time will be longer if you don't change the bit out when it is ready.
It depends on the depth and detail, not the wood species and not really the overall size. I can do a six foot by 1 foot sign in an hour with just lettering or take three hours with a one foot square detailed relief of the Last Supper.
You can pick the quality in several categories (draft, normal, high or best). Each takes a bit longer than the other.
Randy

Thanks, Randy. Sounds like the bits need to be replaced often?

Randy is referring to the common practice of "roughing out" your work with a larger bit - producing more coarse results - and then reducing bit size (diameter) to accommodate the increasingly finer details of your project. Typically, if you try to carve anything of even minimal size using only your finest detailing bit you'll grow a lot older before it's finished.

His reference to how this process can affect the time to produce a finished piece is pretty simple: if your machine does not have an automatic tool changer (and you're not paying strict attention) the machine can "dwell" forever until you wake up, change out the bit, and then command it to continue cutting.

This is just one of a thousand things you'll need to learn to become proficient with even the simplest CNC machine.

TW <---- still sincerely hopeful George takes the plunge and invests heavily into CNC

Thanks for the info, but I don't understand why you keep saying you hope I get heavily into CNC. I'm talking about one project, which may not even happen. I have no interest in starting a CNC shop. As it is, I'm leaning in the direction of finding a local job shop and seeing what they can do.

10 projects is the cut-off point. less then that and you'll spend 80 hours to make 30 dollars worth of 2D goods. 3D can take several hundred hours before your somewhat decent..

You have another option. hand carve the master, have it scanned then duplicated.

Okay, ten projects, good point. Looks like a job shop for me. Thanks.

Thomas...I would hate to be on your bad side

Hard to imagine that happening.

TW

As long as an innocent question isn't asked, I suppose that's so. Otherwise, there is likely to be a condescending snark storm thinly veneered as a word to the wise.

George, best of luck with the project. I'm curious, if it's a one-off, wouldn't hand-carving suffice? Perhaps as a simplified version of what you have in mind?

Leland

Hi, Leland,

Hand-carving is a possibility, except my skills at it are awful and it's not really something I want to learn how to do. I suppose I could look for a carver, but I suspect it would cost more than a job shop. I'll be re-visiting the project sometime next year.